AQ-606 Killer Bee
The AQ-606 Killer Bee is a UNSC special forces attack drone Description The Killer Bee was designed in response to a requirement put forth by the UNSC for a special forces unmanned combat air vehicle, capable of going long periods without support, refuelling or maintenance, while providing, accurate, near fully-autonomous fire support and avoiding detection. The Killer Bee represents not only a quantum leap in aerial vehicle technology, but also new advances in CPU and autonomous robotics. Mission role The Killer Bee was designed as a multi-purpose, all weather drone, capable of supporting a variety of combat missions, including direct action, counter-terrorism, counter-insurgency, reconnaissance, black operations and conventional warfare. Its highly adaptable airframe allowed it to be optimised for a variety of operations, including close air support, stand-off combat missions and electronic support. Weapon Payload For a combat aircraft of its size, the Killer Bee carries a very large payload, capable of taking on two internal light pylons, two external light pylons, at the cost of stealth capabilities and a single internal light weapon hardpoint, carrying a variety of cannons or more exotic weapons. For example, it could be equipped with Champion and Gauntlet anti-radiation weapons to allow it to preform medium to close range suppression of enemy air defence missions, a LASER weapon for anti-tank purposes, rocket pods for area suppression, or cannons for close range support. It can also fit air to air missile to intercepting aircraft or a variety of cannon pods, such as .50 cal machine guns capable of cutting down infantry and light armour, and SRS99 sniper rifles, allowing it to eliminate enemy personnel, explosives and materiel at long ranges. The Killer Bee is capable of fully autonomous weapon deployment, being capable of spotting, verifying and firing on targets. Armour and protection The Killer Bee possess a full spectrum of defensive capabilities, allowing it to remain in active combat theatres for prolonged periods of time. Its primary defence is its outer hull casing. This consists of an outer layer of lightweight alloys, offering the best strength to weight ratio for the aircraft. Underneath this is a layer of replaceable AEGIS tile inserts, capable of shattering incoming munitions and providing a high tensile defence. Beneath this is non-newtonian gel layer, which absorbs, kinetic and thermal energy from the upper layers and catches spalling. These layers are sandwiched together, resin bonded then bolted directly onto the airframe. The airframe is made from superplastic-shaped diffusion-adhered metal matrix composites. These light, oxidation resistant light-matrix composites are formed from high modulus and high strength gold doped zirconium oxide fibres and a titanium/aluminium laminate matrix, formed by heat bonding layers of titanium, aluminium and titanium aluminide, forming high strength crystal matrices, the results forming a high strength, yet flexible and light airframe. This armour plating allows the Killer Bee to ward off several repeated .50 calibre hits, and the tough airframe allows it to preform high-G manoeuvres without fear of stress damage. The Killer Bee utilises a shield generator, capable of projecting a mid-power energy shield around the vehicle. This is enough to ward off several repeated cannon strikes and a single missile strike. This exponentially increases its endurance in combat situations, and resistance to fire. The Killer Bee has a variety of counter-measures for avoiding fire, or misdirecting guided munitions. It carries two DECEPTION Countermeasure launchers, each carrying 25 rounds. These are capable of launching infra-red/ultra-violet flares, RADAR confusing chaff, smoke producing ordnance or miniature jammers capable of jamming RADARS of incoming missiles or jets, feed electronic false targets to incoming missiles or provide a decoy for jam homing missiles. This allows it to defeat the majority of incoming missile ordnance. For electronic and cyber warfare operations, it has full spectrum protection against these systems, as well as emission control against potential RADAR receivers, jammers and other systems. It also possess advanced anti-intrusion systems, utilising a plethora of defensive, maze and dummy barriers operating in series and parallel, and a number of high power attack barriers capable of back hacking threats and distributing a counter-virus to them. These barriers are self modulating and complex, allowing them to maintain the integrity of the on-board systems under heavy and prolonged attack. It is also capable of cyber warfare attack, supporting operators and A.I.s in net intrusion, electronic attack and data retrieval. They can also analyse gathered intelligence at a startling rate and disseminate this just as quickly. It possess a dual purpose electronic jamming system, capable of protecting itself from hostile sensors, while being capable of emitting wide and narrowband jamming, block communications, RADAR sensors and other signals. In this capacity, it can act as a short range electronic warfare platform. After some time, this jamming makes it vulnerable to jam homing equipment, forcing the platform to stop or reposition. This EWP is capable of modulating its signal to adapt to different wavelengths and can be adapted to allow attached ground forces to maintain communication. Airframe The airframe of the Killer Bee is both sleek and multipurpose, with several multi-vector surfaces allowing it to switch between high speed manoeuvres to VTOL stability and agility. During high-speed engagements, its wings are folded up, its stabilisers are raised in a V position and the engines tucked against the airframe, point rearwards. During VTOL mode, the wings lower and the wingtips fold down, increasing agility. The stabilizers fold down to provide increased stability. The head disconnects from the main body allowing it to move to acquire targets to its sides. Stealth Systems The hull is coated in RADAR resistant materials, absorbing RADAR waves and reducing its already small RADAR profile. It also has a layer of infra-red/ultraviolet invisible paint to cloak it in both these spectrums. This is combined with its small profile and RADAR resistant design to make it incredibly difficult to detect. The Killer Bee is fitted with a 2606 Thermal Optical Camouflage system, capable of wrapping the Killer Bee in an electromagnetic field that masks it from sensors, without hampering its own. This field uses encased plasma modulated along different wavelengths to absorb associated radiation, allowing it to become invisible to optical, infra-red, ultra-violet, RADAR and microwave sensors. Power Plant and Engines The power plant of the Killer Bee is 2 linked Mk. XXXIX CENTURION Fusion reactors. Usually used to power much larger aircraft, these give the Killer Bee an over abundance of power, capable of sustaining all its power hungry systems simultaneously. These reactors are heavily masked, and protected by high power radiation sinks, allowing it long operational periods. The primary engine of the Killer Bee is a pair of anti-gravitational boosters, some of the first successfully reverse-engineered from Covenant technology. These use a buffer field to reduce the weight of the aircraft to a fraction of its original weight, and with increased power input allow the drone to hover silently. The secondary engine consists of two thruster modules, mounted on armatures. These use chilled plasma directly from the reactors, channelled through a number of magnetic coils and fired out at a high velocity, giving it a high output, giving it the ability to boost forward, backwards, or preform advance aerial manoeuvres. These engines pivot at a number of joints, giving excellent agility. They are equipped with thrust vectoring, enabling increased agility, and thanks to it ejecting chilled radiation, its invisible in almost all climates. Sensors The Killer Bee has a number of sensors to give it excellent coverage and full spectrum dominance. Its primary targeting sensor consists of all round AESA RADAR coverage, which is both stealthy and jam resistant. This functions as its primary navigation, target finding and hazard spotting. It also possess all round thermal sensors for target tracking and navigation. Its primary sensor cluster is mounted on the 'head' like armature, carrying a high power full-colour optical sensor, long range hybrid infra-red sensor and a dual purpose LASER rangefinder/LIDAR. This has limited traversing capability, allowing it to detect and track targets. It has also been fitted with a terahertz wave sensor, allowing it to observe targets throguh walls at short to medium distances. It has a single mangetic array, capable of detecting high strength electromagnetic disturbances, such as energy shielding and energy weapon discharges. This allows it to track targets, even through walls. Automated Intelligence While the Killer Bee possess formidable armament, tough defence, excellent stealth capabilities and unparalleled agility, the true power of the Killer Bee lies in its next generation central processor. Its processor consists of a single high power system, chilled by a cryonic sheath, keeping its temperature at optimum capacity at all times. The unit possess thirty terabytes of processing power and clocks at 1 exoflop of sustained performance and has significant amount of space for system growth and memory storage. The unit uses a variety of advanced learning algorithms, neural net structure and next-gen framework, to expand its potential. Modelled on Great War era experimental 'micro' A.I. models, the Automated Intelligence of the Killer Bee is exceedingly powerful and advanced, especially compared to other drones. The unit usually develops a surface persona, voice allocation and capabilities within a week of the system powering on, and this only grows exponentially as it enters and continues service. While this is interesting, it is by no means remarkable. What does make it remarkable is its ability to link to and share data with other Killer Bee platforms. As it links to and combines its computing power with more Killer Bees, it shares its computing power, intelligence and 'memories' with other units, increasing the over all intelligence and problem solving capabilities of the units, generating a 'gestalt' intelligence, with individuals sharing experiences, memories and knowledge. Combined units possess substantial processing power, rivalling an dumb A.I., even more so when supported by an A.I.. An excellent example of this is during the siege of Arcturus, 13 Killer Bee units, supported by three smart A.I.s managed to out wit a larger and superior Covenant force and lure them into an ambush, destroying them outright. Individual platforms often garner names from their ground crews, and individual possess unusually inquisitive personae, usually noted for their curiosity and large data consumption. The A.I.s can also perform a wide variety of tasks, such as cyber warfare attacks, communications, reconnaissance, patrol, and even operate other drones, such as the Eagle, Harrier, ground attack drones or special forces Wolf and Mantis Mechs. The Killer Bee is near 100% autonomous. It has no human operator, being assigned to an artificial intelligence close to the command structure of the unit it is attached to. This allows the Killer Bee to deployed to its greatest efficiency, and still be closely linked to the chain of command. They can upload gathered intelligence straight to the War Net, or share data in ream time, being capable of sharing sensor data and camera feeds. To maintain communication with other units, drones and its commanders, the drone utilises an encrypted data link, utilising a ultra-agile metamaterial antennae, capable of communicating across vast distances. Mounted under the upper canopy is a satellite link capable of receiving or beaming information directly to orbiting assets, such as satellites, spacecraft or warships, which can bounce the transmission to another receiver out of view. While protected by numerous defences, this communication system can transfer vast amounts of data among one another at ultra-high rates with no transmission drop off. UNSC Remarks